In reply to a joint request by CANACE and the Caledonia Victims Project, the Canadian Civil Liberties (CCLA) has, once again, refused to even consider meeting to discuss the civil rights abuses in Caledonia, and has made it clear it has no intention of addressing the issue at all.

Here are our most recent communications with the CCLA, followed by a complete list of references of our unsuccessful attempts to persuade the CCLA to assist Caledonia’s victims…

Beginning in early 2007 I contacted your office on a number of occasions seeking your assistance with the civil rights abuses in Caledonia associated with racial policing practices of the OPP, but you were, unfortunately, unable to assist us at that time.

As you undoubtedly know, award-winning author Christie Blatchford’s 2010 book, Helpless: Caledonia’s Nightmare of Fear and Anarchy, And How The Law Failed All of Us, has completely vindicated allegations that the Ontario Provincial Police were following orders not to enforce the rule of law in Caledonia and were, indeed, conducting policing by race to the utter detriment of non-native citizens with no lawful authority.

You may not be aware, however, that a significant amount of the evidence and background for the book was provided by us, and that Mr. McHale and his wife received an acknowledgement in the book for their assistance to the author.

Blatchford’s February 28, 2011 article in Globe, ‘For sheer abuse of state power nothing touches Caledonia,’ [LINK] opens with some frank criticism of the CCLA’s deafening silence on Caledonia’s police abuses:

How fitting that the report of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association on the policing of the G20 should be released on the fifth anniversary of the native occupation in Caledonia, Ont.

The same organization now screaming for a full-scale public inquiry into alleged abuses – particularly, the troubling breach-of-the-peace arrest authority used over that June weekend – was and continues to be absolutely silent about similar and worse abuses that occurred in the small town just south of Hamilton, just a few klicks from the Six Nations reserve.

We have worked alone, on a full time volunteer basis, with no financial or public support from NGOs for nearly 5 years – exposing and opposing the terrible race-based policing that caused so much misery in Caledonia, and we would be grateful for your interest now that you have additional resources available of the type you were able to mobilize for the G20, a very worthwhile endeavour indeed.

UPDATED — Christie Blatchford’s presentation at the University of Waterloo on Tuesday night went off without a hitch, without even a whimper of protest from Dan Kellar or the other self-appointed censors who intimidated the university into cancelling her scheduled Nov 12/10 appearance before it even began, and had promised to disrupt her second vist.

The Kitchener Record has a very good account of the evening which leaves me free to devote this piece to giving credit where it is due – to the University of Waterloo, not only for ultimately defending academic freedom and freedom of speech, but for its masterful public relations work.

Before continuing, however, I feel compelled to share what many who have read Helpless and/or experienced the OPP’s race-based policing policies in Caledonia firsthand might regard as the quote of the evening (just one of many superb Blatchford-isms to which we were treated):

“The election of former OPP chief Julian Fantino – who she blames for abandoning the rule of law in Caledonia – to a federal seat in Vaughan “makes me want to slit my wrists,” she said.

DEFENDING FREE SPEECH:
Christie Blatchford and the University of Waterloo

Most observers agree that UW got caught flat-footed on Nov 12th by a small group of goons who should have been handcuffed and dragged out in order to preserve the precious academic freedom that is the lifeblood of an institution upon which policy makers rely for scholarly scrutiny of vital issues of local and national concern.

Dr. Frances Widdowson is the co-author of Donner Book Prize finalist Disrobing the Aboriginal Industry, and hosted the 2010 New Directions in Aboriginal Policy forum held May 05/10 at Mount Royal University in Calgary to which Gary McHale and Mark Vandermaas were invited presenters.

Widdowson and Mount Royal University were targeted by student radicals with a campaign intended to convince the university to revoke its invitation to the two Caledonia activists via false allegations they were anti-native racists.

Jeff Parkinson, co-founder of Canadian Advocates for Charter Equality (CANACE), has released a short video containing highlights from Christie Blatchford’s speech to a packed crowd at Chedoke Presbyterian Church in Hamilton, Ontario on Nov 16/10.

In addition to commenting on the “national disgrace” of the lawlessness OPP officers refused to stop, she decries the targeting of Gary McHale by Julian Fantino:

“Fantino’s extraordinary campaign to hunt down and have arrested a man named Gary McHale – who is here tonight, too – culminated in the OPP boss writing a letter of support for a native man who had assaulted McHale was probably un-precedented and was deeply disturbing. Consider how furious women would be if the justice system reverted to the days of old when a rapist should defend himself by saying, ‘Geez your Honour, she was wearing these high boots and a short skirt.’ Thats the equivalent of what Fantino did. He wrote a letter to the court in support of the man who pleaded guilty of punching McHale and said McHale had been asking for it.

This is a joint education project by Canadian Advocates for Charter Equality and the Caledonia Victims Project. This is NOT the publisher’s website for Christie Blatchford’s book HELPLESS, nor is it endorsed by the author. Click here to learn more.

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Christie Blatchford: Caledonia law = Deep South law

“…the law in Haldimand County operates as the law in America’s Deep South once worked, where there was one law for the white man, who could break it with impunity, and another for the black man. In Haldimand County, since the occupation began, there has been one law for natives and another for non-natives.“